confine
/kənˈfaɪn//ˈkɒnfaɪn/
confine verb: to have a common boundary with; to border on.
Verb
confine (third-person singular simple present confines, present participle confining, simple past and past participle confined)
- To have a common boundary with; to border on.
- Where your gloomy bounds / Confine with heaven1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- Betwixt heaven and earth and skies there stands a place / Confining on all three.1717, John Dryden, “Book XII”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
- To restrict (someone or something) to a particular scope or area; to keep in or within certain bounds.
- Now let not nature's hand / Keep the wild flood confined! let order die!c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
- He is to confine himself to the compass of numbers and the slavery of rhyme.1680, John Dryden, Ovid’s Epistles translated by several hands, London: Jacob Tonson, Preface
- Synonyms:
- pen, hem in, incarcerate
Noun
confine (plural confines)
- A boundary or limit.
- Confinement, imprisonment.
- She says for you to bring her a slice of cake,
A bottle of the best wine,
And not to forget the fair young lady
That did release you from close confine.a. 1917, anonymous, “Lord Bateman” (folk song) as published in Bertrand Harris Bronson (1959) The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads, vol. 1, p. 419
- She says for you to bring her a slice of cake,
confine meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
confine in Tamil
- பிடித்து அடைத்து வை, சிறை வை, காவற்படுத்து, எல்லை கட்டு, எல்லை குறி, வரம்பேற்படுத்து
confine in Urdu
- آخری حد, سرحد, بند کرنا, حد باندھنا, پابند کرنا, قید کرنا
confine in Bengali
- আবদ্ধ করা, সীমাবদ্ধ করা
confine in Telugu
- to restrict; to keep within bounds
- పరిమితము parimitamu, పరిమితము చేయు parimitamu cēyu, నిర్బంధించు nirbandhiñcu
More languagesFewer languages
- confine in Malayalam
- പരിമിതപ്പെടുത്തുക, നിയന്ത്രിക്കുക, തടയുക, പരിധി
- confine in Kannada
- ಕೂಡಿ ಹಾಕು, ನಿರ್ಬಂಧದಲ್ಲಿರಿಸು, ಸೆರೆ ಹಾಕು, ಬಂಧಿಸು
- confine in Persian
- محصور کردن mahsur kardan, حبس کردن habs kardan
- confine in Vietnamese
- nhốt
Examples of confine in a sentence
- ‘Why, Sir, to be sure, such parts of Sclavonia as confine with Germany, will borrow German words; and such parts as confine with Tartary will borrow Tartar words.’1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford, published 2008, page 467:
- Surely all this talk and gossip about you would never have arisen if you had confined yourself to ordinary activities, but only if your behaviour was abnormal.1993, Plato, translated by Hugh Tredennick and Harold Tarrant, “Justice and Duty (i): Socrates Speaks at his Trial: the Apology”, in The...
Synonyms of confine
Forms of confine
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | confines |
| present participle | confining |
| past participle | confined |
| past | confined |
| Noun | |
| plural | confines |
Origin of confine
From Middle French confiner, from confins, from Medieval Latin confines, from Latin confinium, from confīnis.
Words formed from confine
Words that rhyme with confine
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- design
- divine
- combine
- pine
- spline
- swine
- consign
- frankenstein
- nine
- refine
- vine
- whine
- benign
- chine
- in line
- intertwine
- recline
- resign
- rine
- undermine
- wine
- affine
- anodyne
- dine
- gold mine
- incline
- malign
- opine
- outshine
- propine
- red line
- shrine
- syne
- tine
- trunk line
- tyne
- atrine
- berine
- bine
- brine
- cline
- disentwine
- einstein
- equine
- offline
- quine
- repine
- rhine
Questions about confine
- What does confine mean?
- Confine means to have a common boundary with; to border on.
- What is confine in Tamil?
- Confine in Tamil is பிடித்து அடைத்து வை, சிறை வை, காவற்படுத்து. See Confine meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use confine in a sentence?
- ‘Why, Sir, to be sure, such parts of Sclavonia as confine with Germany, will borrow German words; and such parts as confine with Tartary will borrow Tartar words.’
- What part of speech is confine?
- Confine can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce confine?
- Confine is pronounced /kənˈfaɪn/.
- What is the past tense of confine?
- The past tense of confine is confined.
Words near confine in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: confine (page history and authors); confine (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); confine (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); confine (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); confine (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); confine (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-confine (verb).wav.
Cite this entry: “confine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/confine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.